TEXAS #1

So we left the house at 11AM and drove for about an hour and then about twenty minutes before the border Khalil realises he forgot his drivers' license back in Montreal. This kinda spoiled our plan to rent a car but no biggie. Mike's car was packed with 4 people, 2 guitars, a bass guitar, a keyboard, and a handful of suitcases backpacks and duffel bags. With this we approached our first hurdle, the U.S. border going into Vermont. The nice border guard guy asked only a handful of questions to which Mike responded expertly and let us go through without too much of a hitch.

Soon after entering Burlington we stopped for smokes and bathroom break. Camel Turkish Golds advertise themselves as smooth and mellow and this was the consensus. Combo cheese snacks were somewhat more pungent than anticipated.

We arrived at Burlington airport pretty early and checked-in, again with nary a hitch. The trip overall went smoother than I thought, though as we found out later, both of our planes would get delayed. A woman at the counter saw our instruments and figured out we were going to South by Southwest. She also said that her daughter worked for the fest. A good omen.

It was around this time that I parted ways with the others as they took off for security and their connecting flight to Cleveland. I went and checked myself for my flight to NYC/LGA and we took off a good 15 minutes early in cloudy, wet weather.

The flight was brief, uneventful but more importantly, my guitar was allowed to come with me into the plane where it was strapped in by a seat belt into an empty seat. Smooth sailin' all the way.

At LaGuardia, I rushed to my gate thinking that I only had an hour left to catch my flight. What I actually had to do was go to a different terminal and go through security again, because I ended up landing in the US Airways terminal and my flight to Houston left from the main terminal. My flight was technically a United Airways flight but it was co-operated with Contintental in a confusing mess but all was well until I arrived at the gate and found out we were delayed for 2 hours. I listened to CDs including the BCASA's album and read Jean Chretien's memoirs of his prime minister years while I waited and texted with the others in Cleveland and my brother in California.

I've travelled enough to know delays are part of the process and I've also been delayed long enough to not be pissed off at two measly hours. I finally took off from LGA at around 8:45pm and after another uneventful flight arrived in Houston 2 hours late but coincidentally the same time as the others for their flight too had been delayed an hour.

So everything worked out fine and we were picked up by James of FLA and his sister-in-law and now I'm typing this in his bedroom studio surrounded by an awesome collection of vinyl, a huge Apple monitor, a wall of Marshall amps, a Fender Jaguar and the same drum machine that Suicide used on their first album.

Tomorrow's a new day.

=//Turnquest